Products fabricated through an injection molding process are well known in the art. Further, depending upon the product and intended use of the product, a secondary operation may be required to create an additional feature in the product. The execution of this secondary operation may be required in instances where tooling with a collapsible core or another molding process within an injection molding environment cannot create a feature (e.g., an undercut hole for a bearing) because of a draw angle or a high degree of complexity related to creating the feature. As an example, a complex feature would include an undercut portion included within an aperture.
Presently, a secondary operation such as a machining operation may be used to create such a complex feature after a component part has been molded. However, this machining operation is generally disfavored as it involves high costs per individual product. Furthermore, such secondary operations traditionally require additional processing time, labor, fixtures, and tooling to create the necessary features of the component part.
Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, an example of a molded component 10 created through multiple operations, including a molding process and secondary machining operations, is shown. FIG. 2 is a cross sectional view of section AA from FIG. 1. The molded component 10 of this example is a handle having a generally cylindrical shape formed through injection molding. The molded component 10 includes a non-injection mold formable feature 18, such as an aperture 20. Further, another non-injection mold formable feature 18 may include an undercut portion 22 which is formed above the aperture 20. Such non-injection mold formable features 18 are introduced through a secondary machining operation.
These complex features, as well as other features that cannot be reliably tooled in a cost effective manner during an injection molding process are introduced through a secondary machining operation.